How about that weather?

It's strange what specific memories can be called up by an exact feeling you'd forgotten ever having before. I'm going about my business when a place or a desire comes into my memory, apropos of nothing. I walked to the mall today to get myself out of the house, get some things, and treat myself to some food-court teriyaki.* (Sarku, incidentally, became a favorite commissary of mine back when I worked at the Northgate Mall. I definitely never expected one to turn up in Maryland, any more than I would expect to see a Taco Del Mar in Florida.** It feels like the Seattle embassy in Hyattsville.) Wow, I lost my train of thought. So, I was coming back from the mall, and as I was coming in the door I had the sudden urge to play a rented copy of Earthbound.

I rented Earthbound several weekends in, I think, the late summer and/or early school year of 1995. It's one of the games I just loved, and if it hadn't been for the hype around the Nintendo 64 I probably would have asked for it for that Christmas.***

I don't know exactly what brought this up. There are two sets of stairs between the street and my front door, now, just like there were then. Coming inside I felt a very particular change in temperature and odor. A specific, faintly musty smell on cool air always makes me nostalgic for my parents' basement, and that was some of it.

You might have noticed that the weather outside elicited my sense memory of a summer day on Long Island. I'm not a fan of the weather in Maryland right now. Today would have been a very pleasant day in late May, or a welcome reprieve in July, but on February 1 of a winter that's had approximately one inch of snow, I kind of resent it. Not least on Girlfriend's behalf--shouldn't she get a snow day or two. I don't think getting your third day of school off for earthquake repairs really compensates.

Until next time.

* Firefox's spell-check doesn't seem to recognize "teriyaki," but it suggests I change it to "sukiyaki." What an odd lexical phenomenon.
** There are those, too. Seattle's not that special, apparently.
*** I did get it for Christmas eventually, with Chrono Trigger. A very good year in that regard. This was back when there was a place called Funcoland, and before I realized that the price of a video game can go up as it gets older, otherwise I would have produced a more merciful Christmas list.